The thief Cao Peng Tang Qian is no stranger to the prison Cao Zuo Shixi, although this person has only been transferred to the county for a year, he is already well-known, and he is quite respected by the county and the county guard.

Dan Xi is a weirdo who doesn't eat oil and salt, for example, whenever he has endured a case, he likes to investigate and ask questions a little bit, and follow the rules, instead of being like Tang Qian's prison officer Ling Shi, regardless of 3721, he will beat the criminal first and force him to confess......

The same is true of this wide-ranging "inner case", Dou Ran has been detained in prison and interrogated several times by several Ling Shi, but this person has been silent and refuses to answer any questions......

"Torture!"

Tang Qian lost patience and made his own request to Prison Cao.

"Whip it, this pampered Chu County Duke will definitely recruit everything!"

Xi objected: "Qin Law" has a saying, can be questioned according to the confession, it is the best policy to clarify the case without torture, and it is the inferior means to obtain the facts of the case by examining and plundering, this is the first trial, and it has not yet reached the period of three times, why use punishment?" ”

Tang Qian's face was uncertain: "The county lieutenant ordered that this case should be investigated thoroughly as soon as possible, if it is delayed, let Chu leak more secrets, what should I do?" ”

Xi shook his head: "Dou Ran has been captured for more than half a year, and it is not directly related to the recent assassination case, and the former ministers of the Ruo Ao clan who have contact with him are not necessarily insiders, so Dou Ran is not a suspect, but a witness." In "Qin Law", the punishment of criminals is the last policy, let alone the punishment of witnesses? Moreover, the Qin officials whipped the captured county prince of Chu State, this matter is not good, the thief Cao Peng is patient, let me slowly try and ask ......"

"Patience? The county lieutenant hasn't given you a deadline, so you don't have to rush! ”

Seeing that the two began to argue, Heifu hurriedly came over to persuade him, and finally Tang Qian and Xi reached a compromise, and let Xi try again, if he still can't ask anything tomorrow, he will ask Jun Cheng for approval of the punishment.

"Xijun still rejects torture so much, even if that Dou Ran is a Chu person."

He remembered that more than two years ago, when he and others were fighting a lawsuit in Anlu County Prison, Xi never tortured any of them from beginning to end, but relied on the methods of collecting evidence, interrogation, and cross-examination to slowly find out the truth.

In the past few years, Heifu has found that not every lawyer can follow the rules in the Qin law like Xi, and Xi is a special case.

"I had a case."

Xi sat behind the desk, and while flipping through the file about Dou Ran, he told Heifu about a past incident: "When I first came to the county court last year, I received a case of begging (jū). ”

"Begging" is equivalent to a retrial in later generations, that is, if the parties believe that the judgment is unfair, they can request a higher judicial department to retry their case, and the judgment of the county court can be retried by the county court, and if there are still major doubts, the case of the county court can be reaffirmed by the court lieutenant, that is, the highest court of the Qin state.

"On the day of December in the twenty-third year of the king, a soldier named Mao was sent to Dangyang County by the pavilion chief on the charge of stealing cattle. Mao confessed to his theft, and also bit out his accomplice, a musician named Jiao, whose testimony was that on December 5, he and Jiao stole the cow and led it to the company's home......"

"According to Mao's confession, the Dangyang County Cheng and several Ling Shi who tried the case believed that he was an accomplice and sentenced him to be a Chengdan."

"I was not convinced, so I asked for a beggar to beg, and this case came to my hands, and it was April of the twenty-third year of the king."

The time limit for begging was three months, the "talk" was sentenced to Chengdan on February (16 July), and the retrial was on April Bingchen (11 days), with an interval of 54 days, almost past the time for retrial.

It was this gap of just six days that allowed Xi to save an innocent person who was almost reduced to the city because of torture.

In accordance with his usual method of handling cases, he first collected all the records of the case, and then asked all the relevant witnesses to come to the county for interrogation, and the testimony of the three witnesses was favorable to the interview.

I couldn't help but be surprised, with such an obvious loophole, why did the officials of Dangyang County convict him as if they were blind, and when he was interrogated for the first time, he also confessed that he was an accomplice in cattle theft......

Under Xi's careful interrogation, he finally told a secret story during the preliminary trial: because he refused to admit that he participated in stealing cattle, he was beaten by the "Cho" of Dangyang County's Lingshi, and he was also doused with cold water. After giving him a physical examination, the prison historians of the county court found that there were indeed injuries on the back of "Talk", and there were thirteen large scars as thick as fingers alone, and the small scars were also intertwined, stretching from the shoulders to the waist......

What is even more surprising is the re-interrogation of the cattle thief Mao, who was also tortured to extract a confession: Mao did admit that he had stolen the cow alone at first, but the Dangyang County Lingshi, who was in charge of interrogating him, recognized that he could not steal the cow alone, so he beat him on the back, buttocks, and thighs with a bamboo stick, and blood flowed all over the ground.

"Mao" was in unbearable pain, so he had to pull his neighbor into the water to stop fighting. The physical examination found that the scars on "Mao's" body were innumerable, and at least four of the scars on his buttocks and legs were as thick as his fingers......

Under Xi's thorough investigation, the truth of the case was revealed, and the Dangyang County Lingshi, who tortured to extract a confession, knew that he could not deny it, so he had to accept the punishment in frustration, and the county Cheng and several officials who participated in the trial also had to admit that they had made mistakes in their work during the first trial, and they were all punished for dereliction of duty.

As for the musician who was wronged, he was also able to avenge his grievances and restore his identity and reputation. Wives and children who have been sold into slavery are redeemed by the government, and property that has been confiscated and sold is also repaid at the same price. Because his face has been blackened, he can no longer work as a musician, and the county government also placed him in another county, granting him 100 acres of land to support himself and his family......

After telling this story, he said to Heifu meaningfully: "This is the reason why in the decree, it is recommended that the judge should not use torture at every turn, and only when the prisoner is questioned and resigned to poverty, deceived many times, and changed his confession and refuses to admit the crime, can he be tortured according to the law, and the reason for the torture must be recorded in the book." “

Heifu understood, because it was only a "suggestion" and not a strict prohibition, so the officials of the Qin State did not abide by this clause, and only a few people such as Xi silently implemented it.

In later parlance, Xi was a judge who believed in "procedural justice". He will do his best to maintain the fairness of the adjudication process, so as to achieve "justice on the Qin law".

Heifu couldn't help but be ashamed, and remembered that when he first became the pavilion chief, he was also a good policeman who pursued "justice". But after going through a lot of things, after two laps in the battlefield officialdom, Heifu's state of mind began to change, some principles were abandoned, and he began to do things by unscrupulous means......

Xi is also a native of Anlu County, and he knows the feud between Heifu and Yun, and can guess the purpose of his active participation in this matter, but Heifu is cautious and has no handle.

So when parting, Xi said meaningfully to Heifu: "Zuo Bing Cao Shi, although you have made meritorious contributions at a young age and are in a high position, you must remember that if you do the wrong thing, you will get the wrong result!" “

In the name of official business, it is not advisable to avenge personal vendetta!

There are words in the happy words, Heifu listened respectfully on his face, but there was a helpless sigh in his heart.

He will not laugh at Xi pedantic, but will admire Xi Xi.

Everyone in the world goes with the flow and pays attention to the passage of time, but Xi has always stood in place, holding several volumes of "Qin Law" in his hand, and sticking to the principles in his heart.

But Heff is unlikely to follow suit.

"Victory is justice!"

Silently chanting the famous words of Komeimen Kensuke in his heart, Heifu walked into the dark streets and alleys, and he also had to visit the thief Cao Tangqian overnight to discuss with him that he should let the "Provincial Public Security Department" thief Cao and the "Provincial Court" prison Cao compete for the right to interrogate this time as soon as possible.

……

As Heifu expected, Dou Ran was a proud county prince of Chu State, and the aristocratic plot in his heart was very heavy, and if he didn't need to be punished, he wouldn't confide half a word at all. The next day, the only response he received from repeated interrogation was the back of his head with contempt.

So at the instigation of Heifu, the thief Cao Peng Tang Qian began to ask the county guard and the county to hand over Dou Ran to the thief Cao to guarantee that he could ask something!

Considering that Dou Ran was not a suspect, but just a witness, and he was the captured county prince of Chu State, he might have to be sent to Xianyang to meet the king in the future, so the county prince threw a problem to the thief Cao: they could interrogate him, but he must not leave obvious scars......

Tang Qian was a little worried, but Heifu was happy, he happened to know a lot about the torture methods that did not leave scars in the future!

After being transferred from prison Cao to thief Cao prison, Dou Ran found out what a courtesy it was for the Qin State official to interrogate him unhurriedly......

He first went through an ordinary interrogation, Dou Ran still chose to remain silent, and then he was roughly tied to a long case, and the Qin official Heifu who had captured him appeared in front of him, and directed a group of smiling jailers towards Dou Ran.

"Shaft! The county duke will never say half a word! ”

Dou Ran had already expected this day, but this tough nobleman was not afraid, whether it was a whip or a knife, he could be willing to do it!

Zhu Rong blood, the nobles of the Chu State, are not afraid of killing themselves with a sword, what punishment are you afraid of?

However, instead of the whips and sticks that followed, the jailers simply covered his mouth and nose with layers of thick linen towels.

There is no such kind in the "Ten Tortures of Violent Qin" that is widely circulated in Chu State, Dou Ran is a little strange, as the linen cloth becomes thicker and thicker, he subconsciously opens his mouth and breathes hard, but then, cold cold water is poured on his face......

A large amount of water was sucked into the stomach, lungs and trachea, and the feeling of suffocation soon hit, and the throat spasmed, and he began to vomit and cough.

Dou Ran struggled desperately, his hands were scratched, his legs were kicked, and just when he thought he was going to suffocate to death, the wet cloth on his face was taken away, and the faces of Heifu and Tang Qian appeared in front of him.

"Recruit or not?"

Tang Qian's voice came from the buzzing ear: "Who is the Anlu clan who has correspondence with you?" ”

Dou Ran gritted his teeth and didn't say a word.

Heifu smiled and instructed the jailers, "Go on." ”

So then, he repeatedly enjoyed the taste of "waterboarding", and enjoyed the near-death experience of drowning without interruption, his lungs and trachea secreted a large amount of thick nasal discharge, blood flowed from his mouth, and even incontinence, and he experienced indescribable pain and humiliation......

Finally, when Dou Ran was tortured to the point of a mental breakdown and his consciousness gradually blurred, he finally couldn't hold back the pain and muttered something that Xi didn't ask.

"I said ......"

"Stop!"

Tang Qian was overjoyed, raised his hand to stop the unfinished jailers, and approached Dou Ran with Heifu.

But after seeing Dou Ran desperately inhaling a few breaths of air, he closed his eyes, and his lips moved slightly: "The one who has a correspondence with me is the former minister of the Ruo Ao clan......"

"Yun's ......"

I heard that it was the county lieutenant of Anlu, Tang Qian's face was solemn, and a sneer appeared on Heifu's face, with Dou Ran's confession, plus the black materials collected by his subordinates Li Xian and others in the past six months, it was enough for Yun Man to drink a pot!

Unexpectedly, Dou Ran's words were not finished.

"And ...... Ritchie! ”